rubber spoon

Finally, Michele is a character! Kind of. Unlike the racist stereotype that she had been up to this point, Michele shows another facet of her previously nonexistent personality. When Peter and Michele meet in the bar at the end of the issue, I got a sense of hope that she might turn out to be something after all. It took them far too long to get here, but at least we're here.

The art by Gaydos is mostly good, and he does very good renditions of Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and Michele Gonzales.

The Bad

The story in this issue was poor, and full of glaring holes.

For starters, the premise of the Hood having a bunch of thugs battle over the Scorpion suit doesn't make any sense considering the Hood's access to superhuman criminals. Also, the entire point of the Scorpion was that he was superhuman, so putting a random thug in the suit accomplishes nothing.

Another glaring inconsistency is Peter's "anonymous white guy" disguise. He banks on his anonymity to avoid getting the crap beat out him ... which wouldn't really work considering that he was all over the newspapers and television only days earlier. I mean, damn, it was only last issue that people were recognizing him on the street and the unemployment line. At least one thug would have recognized him, and then the stories of Peter Parker associating with gangs and criminals would dig him an even deeper hole.

Yet another problem with the story is how Spidey deals with the criminals: he sends tons of steel girders falling on them. Remember, this is the guy that doesn't kill supervillains because his life is an enormous guilt trip. And he drops tons of construction materials onto the bad guys to get away. Right.

And this is one top of little mistakes like Scorpia being able to sting Spidey without any warning from his Spider-sense, or Spider-Man's webshooters suddenly having more recoil than a shotgun. I was also a little disappointed that Van Lente chose to include both Bushwacker and Tombstone, only to give them such meaningless roles in the story. They were simply throwaway hoodlums here.

The Ugly

Gaydos draws the worst renditions of Bushwacker and Tombstone that I have ever seen. In fact, I wouldn't have even recognized Tombstone if he hadn't been identified by name, because Gaydos drew him as a blonde white guy instead of an African-American albino. Whoops.

Grades

Story

I've already aired my big problems with this half-assed attempt at a story, so I don't have anything else to say other than that I would give it a generous 3/10.

Art

I liked the art for the most part, outside of my problems with Bushwacker and Tombstone. I don't care for Gaydos' coloring, but his linework is pretty solid. I think a 7/10 is appropriate.

Overall

Do the math and it's a 5, mostly thanks to the artwork. This series has been getting progressively worse picking itself up last year. All of the positive vibes I had been getting from the excellent issue 600 and the great Chameleon arc that followed are long gone.

Finally, Michele is a character! Kind of. Unlike the racist stereotype that she had been up to this point, Michele shows another facet of her previously nonexistent personality. When Peter and Michele meet in the bar at the end of the issue, I got a sense of hope that she might turn out to be something after all. It took them far too long to get here, but at least we're here.

The art by Gaydos is mostly good, and he does very good renditions of Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and Michele Gonzales.

The Bad

The story in this issue was poor, and full of glaring holes.

For starters, the premise of the Hood having a bunch of thugs battle over the Scorpion suit doesn't make any sense considering the Hood's access to superhuman criminals. Also, the entire point of the Scorpion was that he was superhuman, so putting a random thug in the suit accomplishes nothing.

Another glaring inconsistency is Peter's "anonymous white guy" disguise. He banks on his anonymity to avoid getting the crap beat out him ... which wouldn't really work considering that he was all over the newspapers and television only days earlier. I mean, damn, it was only last issue that people were recognizing him on the street and the unemployment line. At least one thug would have recognized him, and then the stories of Peter Parker associating with gangs and criminals would dig him an even deeper hole.

Yet another problem with the story is how Spidey deals with the criminals: he sends tons of steel girders falling on them. Remember, this is the guy that doesn't kill supervillains because his life is an enormous guilt trip. And he drops tons of construction materials onto the bad guys to get away. Right.

And this is one top of little mistakes like Scorpia being able to sting Spidey without any warning from his Spider-sense, or Spider-Man's webshooters suddenly having more recoil than a shotgun. I was also a little disappointed that Van Lente chose to include both Bushwacker and Tombstone, only to give them such meaningless roles in the story. They were simply throwaway hoodlums here.

The Ugly

Gaydos draws the worst renditions of Bushwacker and Tombstone that I have ever seen. In fact, I wouldn't have even recognized Tombstone if he hadn't been identified by name, because Gaydos drew him as a blonde white guy instead of an African-American albino. Whoops.

Grades

Story

I've already aired my big problems with this half-assed attempt at a story, so I don't have anything else to say other than that I would give it a generous 3/10.

Art

I liked the art for the most part, outside of my problems with Bushwacker and Tombstone. I don't care for Gaydos' coloring, but his linework is pretty solid. I think a 7/10 is appropriate.

Overall

Do the math and it's a 5, mostly thanks to the artwork. This series has been getting progressively worse picking itself up last year. All of the positive vibes I had been getting from the excellent issue 600 and the great Chameleon arc that followed are long gone.

Last edited by spidertour02 on Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

Outhouse Editor

I read it twice, hoping beyond hope that there would be something in this that I actually enjoyed. There was... one word: "Sup?" One panel, one word, and it actually made me chuckle. That's something that Amazing hasn't done for me since the later part of the twentieth century.

Let me say first and foremost that the art and coloring of this book has never been worse. That's not to say that I don't think there's a place for this art - I believe there is; but it's not this book. This would work in one of Marvel's Noir series rather well.

Story wise, I'm bored. I know Peter has a hard luck life. I knew it back in the early 1970's when I started reading this title. Sure some of the characters are new (and rather boring) but it's the same old song folks. The best story I've read during this Gauntlet is the Rhino's, and it wasn't the new dud that was interesting, it was the next step in the original that had me wanting to read it.

I tried... I really did. Spidey was my first comic, my first love of animation. But this run ranks second worst ever to me, with Devin Grayson and Bruce Jones' run of Nightwing being first.

Outhouse Editor

I read it twice, hoping beyond hope that there would be something in this that I actually enjoyed. There was... one word: "Sup?" One panel, one word, and it actually made me chuckle. That's something that Amazing hasn't done for me since the later part of the twentieth century.

Let me say first and foremost that the art and coloring of this book has never been worse. That's not to say that I don't think there's a place for this art - I believe there is; but it's not this book. This would work in one of Marvel's Noir series rather well.

Story wise, I'm bored. I know Peter has a hard luck life. I knew it back in the early 1970's when I started reading this title. Sure some of the characters are new (and rather boring) but it's the same old song folks. The best story I've read during this Gauntlet is the Rhino's, and it wasn't the new dud that was interesting, it was the next step in the original that had me wanting to read it.

I tried... I really did. Spidey was my first comic, my first love of animation. But this run ranks second worst ever to me, with Devin Grayson and Bruce Jones' run of Nightwing being first.

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Good-bye.."